Under fire in the Greenpeace affair, a Mitterrand minister resigns

In a private session with journalists last week, French President Francois Mitterrand described it as "criminal and absurd . . . and stupid." Indeed, whoever blew up and sank the Rainbow Warrior, flagship of the Greenpeace environmental organization, in New Zealand's Auckland harbor last July did not do France or its President any favor. As the usually pro-Mitterrand Paris daily Le Monde and other papers zeroed in on the culpability of the government in the mysterious act of sabotage, the President could no longer remain aloof from what was rapidly becoming one of France's worst political crises in the four years...